I have been a recreational sailor for many years, with a particular interest in small sailing craft; therefore much of the content of my 'blog' will be related to this subject.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Something Wrong and Something Right

It’s not much of a confessional, but yesterday I bought a length of rope for ‘Bumper’s’ running rigging and today I was embarrassed when I found it was too thick for the blocks! I’ll have to make a return visit to the chandlers in the hope I’ll be able to swap the rope for a thinner one.

Quite often I make mistakes, and they are always costly. This one was expensive in petrol and in time – a total of 55 miles driving the car while burning carbon fuel and most of the money going to the Chancellor in way of tax on petrol, and of course, the bit of rigging I wanted to renew will now have to be completed after the boat has been launched.

Still, something came of the trip to Burnham this afternoon, because I was able to load more gear aboard the yard and sort out a couple of new stowage arrangements.

Now, all the charts, almanacs, pilots and navigation tools are in one locker, whereas last year they were on various shelves. I’ve allocated a locker for dry and tinned foods and another for vegetables and fruit. The old gear that occupied valuable space in the heads compartment has been ditched, which means the Porta Potti can be used for its designed purpose. I’ve placed the emergency flares and a fire extinguisher within reach of the companion way, while a second extinguisher was given a place by the forward cabin.

I hope the above changes will improve the operational efficiency of the boat and that something right was done today.